Is it less effective if medication expired since 12/2014? is it safe to take it? e.g. Amboxol?

Responses (1)

When a medication expires, it does lose its effectiveness, either slightly or entirely. The chemical makeup of the drug is likely to change once it is expired.

If 12/2014 was the date on your RX bottle, you likely had it filled 12/2013. Any medication dispensed will technically expire a year after you've had it filled. The original bottle the medication was packaged in likely had a different expiration date on it (assuming you were given the medication in an RX bottle with your name on it). It could have been sooner than the year you were given or it could have been months or years later.

This doesn't mean your medication is going to work at full effectiveness or at all... unless you've been given the original packaging the medication came in, its kind of hard to tell when it would have expired on its own.

To be on the safe side, you're better off tossing the medication and getting a new RX.